according to plan

In the spirit of Janice's recent post about keeping it real, I thought I would share a project I half completed that hasn't gone according to plan. Like many of you, I have furniture from my university days (can I still say that when I graduated 11 years ago??) namely two Ikea Lack tables. One is a console table and one is a coffee table. I've had it in my mind to make an ottoman out of each one of them - one for the living room and one for my bedroom. So I finally got to work a couple of weeks ago.

Here's the coffee table before:

I took a trip to fabricland* to pick out the fabric and the foam to make it cushy. I hemmed and hawed, but found some cozy grey fabric with some colourful flecks in it that I thought would be nice for the winter months, but when I got it home I just wasn't sure. I kind of thought maybe the wrong side of it would work better because you could see the colours better.

Ultimately, I decided on the right side and I got measuring. Instantly I realized the the cushy foam wasn't going to be thick enough, but it was all I had (and $35 a metre!!) so I stuck with it. I stapled the fabric etc. and all was fine until I was finished and turned it over.

It was kind of blah.

My hubby thought it was kind of blah too so I was pretty disappointed. So here it is... where it has been sitting for a few weeks**:

Leo has been having fun with it -- using it for balance and such while standing. But I have to do something with it. I don't want to spend the money to buy more fabric because I don't want to be disappointed again, so I still might try to make it work. I dunno. Obviously it still needs legs. I might take a trip yonder to Home Depot or Lowes to see what kind of legs they have to finish it off.

Here it is in front of the couch where I would have liked it to go. I pictured it (with legs :)) with a tray on top (and basically nothing else because I have a child who will knock everything off of the tray...).

So there's my dose of reality for today (that and all the toys laying around!).

What would you do with it? Suggestions welcomed!

*this is getting tougher with a little kid in tow by the way - strolling him through the fabric bolts I'm sure he's wondering where the eff his mother is taking him now...
**What do you think of the martini glasses being so close to the kiddie table with all the books? :)